Just picked the car up after having it's winter boots put on... predictably it is nice and warm outside and the sun is shining. However, I'm sure that won'te last long!
Also had the alignment checked. As suspected the toe was all kinds of wrong! Now been put back to sensible all round, so hopefully it will take care of the uneven tyre wear and improve the feel (which alerted me to the fact someething was amiss in any event).
I only had the toe adjusted as I wanted to see how it went. The camber on the rear isn't adjustable and on the front was less extreme negative than come guys seem to run, but I didn't feel compelled to change until I'd seen how it handles. In my mind that is sensible... I'm sure someone will tell me why I am wrong!
What would more negative camber at the front actually do? I haven't read all the thread Fivos posted the other day yet...!
You will enjoy the car a lot more with the winter tyres Gareth, good move
More front -ve camber increases grip at the front.
The camber at the rear isn't adjustable as such but make sure it is symmetric in both sides.
I had the upper holes (where they attach at the hub) of the shocks machined to gain more camber (wrong manufacturing tolerances since my suspension is hand made I think).
Looking at the read outs the camber is very slightly different (left and right) on both front and rear. Your post suggests that's a problem then. :icon_sad:
But enough to cause uneven wear.... especially if you were turning right a lot :biggrin: (inside edge of RH tyre would wear slightly more than inside edge of LH tyre in a straight line and outside edge of LH tyre when turning right as it would likely push into positive camber compared to outside edge of RH tyre).
Where did you have the alignment done Gareth?
Is that in the little village not far from Dan's garage?
If you take it back they should fix it for free as although within tolerances it seems the general consensus is that it should be pretty equal.
It's what distinguishes a good place where people aim for perfection and an OK one where "that will do".
To be fair to them, they told me it was within tolerance when agreeing what to do, so I was only charged for front and rear toe adjustment, not a full set up. Because it was on the phone whilst I was at work I didn't have chance to run through the numbers with them.
I'll check the paperwork later and get on it.
The key point of all this is that with the toe sorted it feels so much better!
-25' vs -50' is ~ -0.5 degrees vs -1 degrees... it's going to have that much of a noticeable effect in normal driving but if those were you're figures then it's worth getting it adjusted to tick all the boxes.... adjusting the front camber is pretty simple - loosen two bolts either side, adjust, tighten bolts, job done.
Just to further my understanding, can the camber be measured without fancy machines, or is it just the easiest thing to go to somewhere with all the kit?
Yes, my friend and collegue uses axle stands and pieces of string, you have to make sure you have a level surface and the strings are level though.
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